Acknowledgements
We take immense pleasure in thanking Mr. Balvant Patel, Gujarati Sahitya Parishad for his
valuable guidance and useful suggestions in language research.
We wish to express our deep sense of gratitude to Mr. Iqbal Vora, Research Associate,
Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training Gandhinagar for able guidance in
Course curriculum and Research in pedagogical method for teaching Gujarati.
We would like to thank Mrs Jyotiben Chauhan, Teacher and family, Bhavnagar for her
valuable suggestions, guidance and pedagogical source for Gujarati.
Words are inadequate in offering my thanks to Mrs. Kaul, the Head Mistress and Teachers of
Little Angel School, for their encouragement and cooperation in letting us conduct User
Research and testing of the project work.
We thanks immensely to Mr. Ashutosh Sahu, Audio engineer and family, for Preparing
Original Soundtrack of the games of ShabdaVeer without whom game would not have been so
playful and interesting.
Needless to mention Dr. Jignesh Khakhar, Co-ordinator New Media Design, who had been a
constant source of inspiration and for his timely guidance in the conduct of our project work. I
would also like to thank Miss Prachi Nagpal, Mobile Research Lab for her valuable assistance
in the project work.
Our special thanks to our beloved classmate Lakshya Shrivastava and batchmate Chandradip
Rana for sketches of scenario used in our presentation.
Finally, yet importantly, we would like to express my heartfelt thanks to our beloved parents for
their blessings, my friends/classmates for their help and wishes for the successful completion of
this project.

4

1. Introduction
1.1 Shabda Veer is an interactive and playful application for teaching Gujarati language with
special emphasis on the script. Our objective is to teach basics of language and correct way of
writing alphabets, numerals, Bara-akshari and finally words in engaging manner with help of
digital resources offered by the target device, which will arouse interest in language and will
promote the same. Besides self learning it can also be used as a learning and/or practice resource
for a child who is already learning Gujarati as second language in the school.
1.2 Target user: Children of age group 9 to 15 years who are studying in English medium or
know Basic English language.
1.3 Target device: The most economic touch enabled phones like Nokia 5230 and higher
devices. The application uses facilities like Bluetooth for multiplayer mode, GPRS for sharing
score on social network sites and homepage of the game, touch gesture recognition for drawing
and recognizing letters.
1.4 Rationale behind the age: In schools the second language is introduced in fourth or fifth
standard and they continue learning the languages till 10th standard.

Also they are well

acquainted with simple English which is our language of instruction in this application. Trend
suggests they can easily handle mobile phones.
1.5 Language: Gujarati is one of the twenty-two official languages and fourteen regional
languages of India. It is also the official language of Gujarat state and union territories: Daman
and Dui, Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
1.6 Demographics of Gujarati: There are approximately 46 million speakers of Gujarati;
roughly 45.5 million reside in India, 150,000 in Uganda, 250,000 in Tanzania, 50,000 in Kenya
and roughly 100,000 in Pakistan. [1] There is also a large Gujarati community in Mumbai, India.
A considerable Gujarati-speaking population, approaching one million, exists in North America,
most particularly in the New York City Metropolitan Area and in the Greater Toronto Area, but
5

also throughout the major metropolitan areas of the United States and Canada. The United
Kingdom has 300,000 speakers, many of them situated in the London areas of Wembley,
Harrow, New ham and Red bridge, and in Leicester, Coventry and Bradford. A portion of these
numbers consists of East African Gujaratis who, under increasing discrimination and policies of
Africanisation in their newly-independent resident countries were left with uncertain futures and
citizenships. Most, with British passports, settled in the UK. [4]
Indeed, due to the large Gujarati Diaspora in the UK, Gujarati is offered as a GCSE subject for
students in the United Kingdom.
Besides being spoken by the Gujarati people, non-Gujarati residents of and migrants to the state
of Gujarat also count as speakers, among them the Kutchis (as a literary language), [4] the Parsis
(adopted as a mother tongue) and Hindu Sindhi refugees from Pakistan.

6

2. Issues and Design Decisions
2.1 Issues and Process: While developing this application, we faced certain issues and
contradictions. They are documented below along with the design decisions taken.
â&#x20AC;˘

We found large disparity on the set of alphabet in various books and on websites of
institutions of languages. Finally, after discussing the matter with teachers and the
members of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, we took their advice on following, the set of
alphabet approved by the state of Gujarat government which is given in the books
published for children.[6]

Figure 1: Gujarati Alphabet

â&#x20AC;˘

In Gujarati for writing every letter of alphabet, in initial learning stage, there is stress on
how to write the particular letter. Method to write a particular letter was researched by
collating data as taught by teachers of Gujarati and by referring various books. These
presented contradictions between various scholars, authors and educators. We adopted
the method as presented by Central Institute of Indian language. We have demonstrated
this method by animation in application. [3][5]

â&#x20AC;˘

This will also serve as a definition of correct trace, thus gesture recognition on touch
devices can be used to detect the character.
7

â&#x20AC;˘

Whenever a letter is traced in wrong manner, the tactile and audio feedback is used to let
the user know that he/she is not tracing in correct manner.

Figure 2: Tracing method of vowels

8

Figure 3: Tracing method of consonants

9

Figure 4: Tracing method of consonants

•

Over the years, the way of teaching Guajarati has undergone considerable change. There
has emerged clearly two distinct ways of teaching:
a. The conventional method: In which the vowels are taught first, then consonants,
Bara-akshari, conjunct consonants and then words. The alphabet is structured
phonetically in to gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, labials, liquids, aspirates and
cerebral liquids. In classical method the letter is associated with an object, like in
English, ‘A for apple’ and is taught. The student starts learning with the basic
building blocks then add the previous blocks and knowledge to advance in his/her
study of language. The Bara-akshari in conventional way is taught with all the
matras applied to the single consonant which forms a set of 12 hence the word ‘BaraAkshari’.

10

b. The new method: In which the philosophy employed is to start with the letter and
words which the student finds readily in the environment. Learning by conventional
method requires the student to memorize alphabets. Alphabets do not exist
independently and thus it is easier for a student to relate to a word which carries a
meaning. This way a sequence of alphabets and words are developed depending upon
their presence in the environment and ease of writing. Bara-akshari is also not taught
in conventional way where consonant with all the matras formed the set. The new
method teaches a single matra combined with all the consonants and thus large
number of words can be taught. The correct set (conventional set) is introduced later
after learning the whole of alphabets in the sequence of easy to difficult.

Discussing with various teachers, scholars and referring books, in application, we have
used the merits of both the systems. The basic alphabet and Bara-akshari is taught as in
conventional method. As the new system favors learning of words with ease and
articulate specifically the structure which is easy and quickest in terms of learning words,
we have used this in the game â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Word Warâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; which teaches words. [2]

11

Figure 5: New sequence

â&#x20AC;˘

As we researched, we found it extremely difficult to place conjunct consonants in
alphabets. We asked the teachers of Gujarati about their method of teaching the conjunct
consonants. The conjunct consonants are not taught as a part of the alphabet. They are
taught while teaching words. We have made a specific category to teach conjunct
consonants. There were various lists of conjunct consonants that we found. The list given
by central institute of Indian languages is exhaustive and has all possible combinations.
We have followed a different approach; we will be teaching the conjunct of each alphabet
by words. This way all the alphabets will be covered. It is important that the student
understands the logic of formation. So long as he/she understands that he/she can write
any spelling. There are special conjunct consonant like shra (which looks like an
alphabet), the list of such conjunct consonant will also be included.

12

Figure 6: List of conjunct consonants

•

The representation of the pronunciation in English (in the application) is demonstrated
the way it is given in ‘A Simplified Grammar of the Gujarati Language’ by W.S. Tisdall
and ‘Teach yourself Gujarati’ by R.M.J. Dwyer [6]

13

3. Philosophy and Architecture
3.1 Philosophy:

Learn

Playful
Learning

Play

Figure 7: Philosophy of Shabda Veer

The philosophy behind Shabda Veer is to create an interactive, engaging and playful
environment for a student so that he/she enjoys learning. Play almost always promotes
excitement, enjoyment, and a relaxing atmosphere. The first research, and probably some of the
most influential research on play was conducted by Vygotsky in the first half of the 1900s.
Vygotsky (1933) said that play creates a zone of proximal development (ZDP) in children.
According to Vygotsky, the ZDP is the distance between one's actual developmental level and
one's potential developmental level when interacting with someone and/or something in the
social environment (Vygotsky, 1978). During play, children are always above their average age,
above their daily behavior, and ahead of their actual development level. It is as if children are
trying to jump ahead of themselves when playing in order to explore their learning potential.
Work by a number of researchers compliment Vygotsky's theory of play and the ZPD (Sylva, et
al, 1974; Lantolf, 2001). Contributions of play toward effective learning, thought organization,
and problem solving were also found by Sylva, et al (1974). Results from their study show that
children use information from mistakes during play to construct internal models that assist them
in solving future problems. If play does indeed create a ZPD, it seems to promote development
14

because children are able to project themselves into the future and learn by developing future
problem solving strategies. [9]
3.2 Architecture of Shabda Veer:

LEARN

PLAY

Vowels

Letter Race

Consonants

Word War

Bara-akshari
Conjunct Consonants
REVIEW

Traces
Scores
High scores
My Word

Figure 8: Architecture of Shabda Veer

Shabda Veer is divided in to two broad categories: learn and play. There is also review which
acts like a storage and pointer.

3.2.1 Learn: Learn mode is designed for learning basic building block of Gujarati language in a
very structured manner. It has following sections: alphabets, Bara-akshari, conjunct consonant
and numerals.

15

3.2.1.1 Alphabet: The Gujarati Alphabet is derived from the Sanskrit, to which it still bears a
considerable resemblance. The difference consists mainly in the omission in Gujarati of the head
line used in joining together most of the Devanagari characters. Like the Sanskrit, Gujarati is
written from left to right. Letters (varn) are divided into Vowels (svar) and Consonants (vyanjan,
often pronounced venjan).[8]

Figure 9: Classification of Consonants

16

3.2.1.2.Bara-akshari: When matras are applied to the consonant Bara-akshari is formed. The
bellow table shows the Bara-akshari.

Figure 10: Bara-Akshari

17

3.2.1.3 Conjunct consonants: Successive consonants lacking a vowel in between them may
physically join together as a 'conjunct'. Most conjunct characters use the half form of the first
consonant and the others are quickly recognizable. [11][5]

Figure 11: Conjunct consonants with pronunciation

3.2.1.4 Numerals: The Gujarati numerals are very similar to devnagri the complete set from 1 to
100 is given in appendix.
In learning mode, an interactive animation demonstrates the method of writing each letter and
audio demonstrates the pronunciation. The pronunciation is also shown by pronunciation key and
pictogram to associate the alphabet to a word and a picture. The student traces on the letter
repeatedly and audio is played. Thus by repetition, visual and multisensory experience memory
is formed. Various indicators like the monkey, which by smile indicates correctness and score
indicates the feedback and progress of the student on his/her learning. Learn comprises of four
sections: Alphabets (vowel and consonants), Bara-akshari, conjunct consonants and numerals. In
18

Bara-akshari, the concept of matra is introduced with the help of animation and pronunciation is
demonstrated by the audio. Conjunct consonants, the basic technique of teaching conjunct
consonants is to teach with the help of the words. Lastly the student learns the numerals.
The Screen Sequence of Learn section is given below:

Figure 12: Screen sequence of Learn

Revision is very important in retention of the content in memory and hence before starting new
learning, the previous learning should be revised [10]. The homework which is given in school
has the same objective but due to its monotonous nature, students finish it out of compulsion
without much engaging with the content and hence retention is low. A playful interaction which
is interesting and offers excitement will help the revision and memory formation. Thus the play
section fulfills this objective.
19

3.2.2 Play: The play section has two games: Letter Race and Word War.
The letter race game provides an engaging manner of practicing alphabets, Bara-akshari and
numerals.
The second game ‘Word War’ is word based game, student learns words starting from simple
words and moving towards difficult ones. The interactive immersive game play will add to the
motivation of learning. The student has to write word in stipulated amount of time and as the
student accomplishes the task, word will turn in to the pictogram revealing the meaning and
audio will demonstrate the correct pronunciation.
The review section contains the total traces and correct traces of learning section, scores and
words played by the student in ‘My Word’ for reference and review.
My Word: it contains all the words attempted in the word war. It is stored as a dictionary entry.
It contains words definition in English, pictogram and audio support.
Fresh pack: A set of new words is provided so that student continues to build vocabulary. This
will be provided by the website of ShabdaVeer every day. The notification will be available to
the user as he/she starts the application. User can choose to download or not to download.
3.3 Salient features:
a. To make game more interesting, interactive, immersive and competitive we have
added two features : multiplayer mode up to 4 player in Letter Race and 2
players in Word War so that they can compete with their friends and sharing on
social networking and home page of the game which shows top scorers of the day.
b. The age of the audience is such that it learns by following and so we have
provided animation which is engaging and easy to understand.
c. While playing the game the level of difficulty will be adaptive i.e. the speed of
falling of words and their difficulty increases after every correct answer and
decreases when traced incorrectly.
d. We have also used pitch as indicative of speed in game mode, so when the player
is drawing fast, pitch will be high, in multiplayer mode this will serve as a source
of competition to the other players. (Note: On mobile phone only user’s

20

character’s sound will be played but as other players may be sitting near they will
be able to hear it.)
e. As it is interactive it is fun to learn. It uses sound and visual at the same time,
user’s memory retention of the content will increase.
f. We believe this application will not only used for playing but for learning and
repeated practice and so we have made review and profile in which all the scores
and details will be specified which will help student to monitor his/her learning
and growth.
g. The review section has a ‘My Word’ section where all the words played by the
student will be stored so student can review, it also student can revise it any time
any place.
h. We believe that touch screen is not luxury and looking at the competitive market
the prices of the touch enabled phone will come down.
3.4 Scenario:
•

Apart from self learning parent can assign an exercise to learn particular letter. The
parent can review the progress later without being physically present. Profile of the child
would give the detailed score of each exercise that will help parent to see the progress of
the child. Parent can also play multiplayer game with the child which will encourage and
motivate the child.

•

Similarly the tutor or teacher can use this application for home work and can review the
result. Also as the progress of the lessons is given in review section the tutor can help the
child where he/she is lagging. Thus application will provide good resource to monitor the
progress.

•

Students who wish to practice independently for improving their understanding and
memorizing can also use it. Along with the school teaching it will be a wonderful
supplementary resource. Also group studies can happen while playing multiplayer game
which is exciting and studies won’t be boring anymore.

•

It will also serve as a good investment for educational institutions and schools for
teaching their students in a modern playful and interactive manner.

21

4. GUI and Technology Considerations
4.1 User interface considerations:
For making an experience that directly relates the slate in digital experience, touch screen is an
ideal choice .Touch screens enable direct manipulation of content and objects and offer a natural
interaction with the device. There are two touch screen technologies in use:
Resistive touch screens can be used with either a stylus or a finger. Resistive touch screens offer
a high resolution and durability.
Capacitive touch screens can be used with a bare finger, or with a conductive device held in a
bare hand. An ordinary stylus cannot be used. Capacitive touch screens have high clarity.

Our target device is 5230. The application requires the use of stylus for tracing and writing. With
resistive touch screen this task can be easily accomplished. For the higher devices which use
capacitive touch screen we recommend the use of stylus.
The following considerations were kept in mind while designing the UI
•

Touch interface elements should not be smaller than the smallest average finger pad, that is,
no smaller than 1 cm (0.4") in diameter or a 1 cm × 1 cm square.

•

The target minimum sizes for UI elements should be finger usable:

•

7 x 7 mm with 1 mm gaps for index finger usage.

•

8 x 8 mm with 2 mm gaps for thumb usage.

•

A minimum of 5 mm line spacing in list type components.
The width of a finger limits the density of items on screen. Hence the items are not placed too
close. Also we have considered that user can touch the lower part while interacting and hence
most of the options are placed at height near the top of the screen. Occlusion was another reason
for placing essential information and features at top of the screen rather than the bottom. We
22

have considered the fact that mobile screen are small and hence the content should be visible
without straining the eyes. The elements on the screen are so arranged that it makes reading easy
and focuses on the key areas. We have taken in to account the color blindness and hence high
contrast is kept. Figure below shows a screen from the learn section to demonstrate the same.

Pictogram

Next
Monkey smiley

Tracing area

Status and score
Figure 13: Screen
We have used certain elements to make the UI more informative and simple like color coding
and review.
Color coding: color coding is used to indicate the performance of the user on the overall set.
Color range from green to red is used, with green meaning good grip and red means need some
practice on the content. It is like a chart where student will exactly know where he/ excels and
where he/she needs some practice. Blue indicates letters which are not attempted.

23

Figure 14: Color Coding
In review section when clicked on any letter, the total trace and correct trace is provided.

Figure 15: Tracing Record
24

4.2 Usability:
Design should enable completing a task with the same interaction method as it was started with.
Hence eliminate the need to switch from using a finger to stylus. With this principle in mind we
have highlighted wherever possible that the application uses stylus.
4.3 Feedback:
Visual feedback is the most important sensory feedback when entering characters on screen.
Visual feedback is provided in form of monkey smiley for indicating the correctness of trace in
learning section. There is also a status indicator coupled with score letting the user know number
of traces and number of correct traces.
Audio feedback is provided in game for letting the user know the speed at which he/she is
writing.
Vibration is used as tactile feedback for indicating wrong trace and writing in learn and game
sections respectively. Tactile feedback gives the user an immediate response that the touch event
has been registered, even if in noisy environments.
Providing tactile feedback reduces the number of mistakes made by the user. It also improves
user performance in terms of speed and accuracy, because tactile feedback is perceived more
quickly than visual or audio feedback.
Furthermore, tactile feedback is silent, non visual, and individually communicated; it can be used
for communicating information privately.
Tactile feedback provides intuitive and real-time confirmation of an action. Thus in following
component it is provided:
â&#x20AC;˘

Notifications: When entered touch gesture is wrong.

Providing real-time feedback is essential. Sharper, more disruptive feedback is given for
for unsuccessful or wrong entry.[12]

25

User Research and testing: after going through various discussion with teachers and eminent
scholars of Gujarati language. We prepared various parts of Shabdaveerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s User Interface and
tested with the students. There were many concerns and opportunities that we encountered
We first tested the touch device handling with the students of 3rd grade and made them draw, to
learn the ease with which they could accomplish this task.
After receiving positive result, we tested the learn section in which the students of III rd and IV
th standard were asked to trace on the screen. Recording their reactions and asking them
questions revealed that they liked the exercise and they could easily complete the task. It is of
interest to note that the students of III rd standard were beginners of the language. We also learnt
that students initially retrace again and again while tracing a single line when writing any new
letter and when they become confident they trace it in one go.
We also learnt that animation was a great tool which led to easy learning and grasping of new
concepts introduced to student. It was also successful tool in building interest and offering
playful environment for a student to learn.
Monkey as a mascot for the game was liked by the students. The animation provided by the
monkey which served as a feedback was enjoyed by the students. Reciting (which is also done in
traditional teaching) and music added immensely to the overall learning experience.